The challenge will become real challenging if Hillary becomes the next torch bearer.
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The arrow is pointing up in the U.S.-India relationship. Whereas ties between the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s biggest democracy had long been long characterized by mutual suspicion, optimism is now the dominant theme.
Indeed, in an era of American political polarization, support for the U.S.-India relationship is among the few policy issues on which Democrats and Republicans are united. Support for the bilateral relationship is strong in New Delhi as well. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s June 2016 speech to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress was, as Indian-American journalist Tunku Varadarajan put it, the “clearest Indian promise to date of a 21st-century alliance with the U.S.” The George W. Bush administration, in negotiating the civil nuclear deal, opened the door to greater U.S.-India cooperation on a variety of issues. Yet it was President Barack Obama who seized upon the opportunity presented by the election of Modi to propel the relationship forward and make the ties between the U.S. and India truly strategic.
In a few short years, the Obama administration has achieved much with its counterparts in India. The United States named India a “major defense partner” and Prime Minister Modi welcomed a strong American presence in the Indo-Pacific region. On energy, Obama and Modi revived a long-stalled deal for the United States to build nuclear reactors in India, not to mention announcing a series of joint green initiatives. And on trade, Modi ratified the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
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The Challenges for US-India Relations After Obama
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The arrow is pointing up in the U.S.-India relationship. Whereas ties between the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s biggest democracy had long been long characterized by mutual suspicion, optimism is now the dominant theme.
Indeed, in an era of American political polarization, support for the U.S.-India relationship is among the few policy issues on which Democrats and Republicans are united. Support for the bilateral relationship is strong in New Delhi as well. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s June 2016 speech to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress was, as Indian-American journalist Tunku Varadarajan put it, the “clearest Indian promise to date of a 21st-century alliance with the U.S.” The George W. Bush administration, in negotiating the civil nuclear deal, opened the door to greater U.S.-India cooperation on a variety of issues. Yet it was President Barack Obama who seized upon the opportunity presented by the election of Modi to propel the relationship forward and make the ties between the U.S. and India truly strategic.
In a few short years, the Obama administration has achieved much with its counterparts in India. The United States named India a “major defense partner” and Prime Minister Modi welcomed a strong American presence in the Indo-Pacific region. On energy, Obama and Modi revived a long-stalled deal for the United States to build nuclear reactors in India, not to mention announcing a series of joint green initiatives. And on trade, Modi ratified the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
...
The Challenges for US-India Relations After Obama
